Parents may well consider getting these apps if they have exhausted all other methods of monitoring and reducing their kids’ phone and tablet usage:

Parents struggling to get their children away from smartphones and tablets for meals, homework, exercise and other activities can arm themselves with new apps to remotely block access to the devices.

Usage of smartphones and tablets among children has tripled since 2011, according to Common Sense Media, a San Francisco based non-profit that studies the effects of media and technology on young users.

A new app called DinnerTime Parental Control, for iPhone or Android smartphones, enables parents to restrict when children can use their smartphones and tablets.

With the free app, parents can pause activity on a child’s Android smartphone or tablet so that they can focus on things like homework, exercise and family time. Once a device has been paused, all functions on their device are blocked, including the ability to text and play with apps.

To use the app, parents install it on the child’s device and enter in their phone number to link the two devices. Parents can then set specific break times, ranging from 30 minutes to three hours, when the device will be locked. A countdown screen displayed on the child’s device shows when they can use it again.

Whilst I think that an app allowing users to flush teachers down the toilet is in poor taste, I don’t have a major issue with it. As important as it is to advocate the respect of teachers, let’s not pretend that we didn’t all have teachers we absolutely detested.

As much as teacher respect is vital and teacher harassment is repulsive, we must be able to see the humor of such games and learn not to take ourselves too seriously. What I take exception to is the violent options featured in the game such as the use of a slingshot. A bit of adolescent humor is fine, but violence crosses the line.

A TEACHER who developed a controversial phone app in which students can flush a teacher down the toilet or shoot them with a slingshot is being investigated by the Department of Education.

Ross McGuigan has taught in private and public schools for almost 40 years and currently teaches at Kincumber High School on the Central Coast.

He claims his app helps children vent their frustration at disliked teachers without taking action in the “real” world.

His “Flush the Teacher” iPhone and Android game encourages users to upload a photo of their teacher, which is then superimposed on an animated character and flushed down the toilet or harassed with slingshots. The department has taken the matter seriously enough to investigate Mr McGuigan’s role in developing it.

“The department does not support any activity that might encourage disrespect to staff or other students,” a spokesman said.

Reader and prolific blogger Jennifer Birch was kind enough to submit an article especially written for us. History is a subject that seems to turn off students, but as Jennifer writes, that doesn’t have to be the case:

If there is a subject that benefits the most from visual medium, then it has to be History. It’s not a secret that many students find this particular field of study uninteresting, dull, and irrelevant. Of course, to us educators, that is not the case. But because history is comprised of entangled events that stretch endlessly from the time of the Neanderthals, it is hard for teachers to avoid the pitfall of history teaching for young learners –boredom.

Forget the tiresome dates and trivial facts; what’s more important is that the students realize the importance of these events and their relevance to the present. There is a reason why the History Channel is such an engaging piece of the television – it’s interesting. In this age of smartphones, tablets, and the rise of visual media, we can transfer the same charm that the History Channel creates for us into the classroom. Here are some of the best tech tools that take advantage of 21st century technology, helping out teachers to get students more interested:

American History in Video

This app is a cornucopia of historical footage, comprised of over 5,000 (and counting) videos on demand for free. It offers a wealth of archival footage, newsreels, olden broadcasts, images of important events and many other visual aids. Rather than letting students read up on a boring wall of text, American History on Video will show them exactly how it happened and how people at that time reacted. Hook up your laptop on your iPad and play the most exciting videos for the class. Expect many raised hands when the question and discussion time comes.

Event-specific Apps

Whenever a historical event is being discussed, know that there is a good chance that a dedicated app is already made for that. For schools that employ the BYOD model, it is recommended that teachers guide their students in downloading these apps for a better understanding of the lesson. For example, the Gettysburg 150 app “acts as a Gettysburg Battlefield assistant for visitors.”

Sheldon Jones, Verizon’s Public Relations Officer, said in his article that other historical apps such as the Civil War Trust Battle App and the Historic Gettysburg Walking Tour app are perfect for discussing the American Civil War.

Secret Builders

Role-playing games are great tools for teaching history, especially on topics that tickle the imagination of young kids such as the Greek and Roman era. Secret Builders enable children to do just that – create a virtual world where they can participate in the economy, talk to prominent people, create art and many other things. Recommended for students on the first to fourth grade, they will get a clearer picture of how it was to live during the romantic era.

Time Tube

This website is the epitome of engaging students through visual means. With Time Tube, students can type in a moment in history; and a series of related videos will be laid out on a timeline. Very easy to use and informative, this tool is even recommended for teachers to expand their knowledge on a particular historical event. Teachers can also create a custom timeline which students can access, acting as a learning aid and lecture guide.

Chrono Zoom

Created by Microsoft Research, the app contains massive amounts of curated content about thousands of topics including most of those in the curriculum of a history teacher with the help of international researchers. Middle-school teacher Samantha Shires vouches on the effectiveness of the tool. “Chrono Zoom breathes life into history,” she said.

The main brain behind Chrono Zoom is Professor Walter Alvarez from the University of California Berkeley. He was one of the proponents of the theory that an asteroid was the cause of the extinction of dinosaurs.

History is far from boring and dull. It’s our job as educators to present this fascinating subject to learners in an interesting and engaging manner. With tools such as the ones mentioned above, it is easy to create an enjoyable history class. What other tech tools for history did we miss? Tell us your favorites in the comment section below.

About the Author

Jennifer Birch was a volunteer teacher and Ed-tech researcher. She spends most of her time writing and reading. Read more of her musings on Techie Doodlers. Contact her on Twitter or Google+.

EDUCATION

FARM 123 – STORYTOYS JR iPhone/iPad – £1.49. Farm 123 aims to be a digital version of pop-up books, based on a character called Farmer Jo and his animals. It’s aimed at pre-school-age children, teaching them to count from one to 10 with cows, pigs and eggs.

FUNIMAL PHONICS iPhone/iPad – £0.69. Children and parents are well-used to phonics alphabet-learning now, and this stylish flash-cards app gives the discipline a friendly animal face. It’s also notable for its inclusion of both US and UK English accents when speaking sounds.

MY A-Z iPhone/iPad – £1.49. There are lots of alphabetical flash-card apps for iPhone, but this one stands out for its personalisation. Children can add their own photos and sounds for letters – a picture of their dog and its bark for “D”, and so on.

NUMBERLYS iPhone/iPad – £3.99. Despite the name, this beautiful app is more about letters than numbers. It’s a mixture of games and storytelling to explain the origins of the alphabet, with a visual style influenced by films like Metropolis and the original King Kong.

TIMES TABLES: SQUEEBLES MULTIPLICATION iPhone/iPad/Android – £0.69. This UK-developed app is aimed at 5- to 11-year-olds, providing a series of multiplication questions to earn stars and rescue cutesy characters from a nefarious Maths Monster. Up to four children can save their progress on one device.

THE SINGING ALPHABET iPhone/iPad – £0.69. A stylish app that does what it says on the tin: letters that sing. Specifically, they sing their own phonetic sounds, and can be combined to make harmonies and tunes. Given five minutes, your child will be singing along too.

COUNTING WITH THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR iPhone/iPad – £1.99. Eric Carle’s famous book about a fruit-munching caterpillar has been turned into a fun educational game with a mathematical skew. Your child identifies, counts and adds the foods over five levels, ensuring it appeals to a range of ages.

AROUND THE CLOCK iPhone/iPad – £1.49. This time-focused app wears its educational spurs lightly. It’s a collection of 24 mini-games, one for each hour of the day, from toothbrushing to pancake making. The idea is to familiarise children with the clock.

BAREFOOT WORLD ATLAS iPad – £2.99. If you have a child who is just becoming interested in geography, this is an essential buy. It’s a digital globe with music and animation, drawing kids in to the meat of its text and photographic entries on countries, people and nature.

CHANGE4LIFE FUN GENERATOR iPhone/iPad/Android – Free. Part of a wider Department of Health initiative to get families out and about, this app suggests more than 100 activities for children, filtering them by indoors/outdoors and the number of participants. A summer-holiday lifesaver for parents.

COOPER’S PACK: LONDON CHILDREN’S TRAVEL GUIDE iPhone/iPad – £1.49. For parents taking their children to London as a tourist, what better guide than a stuffed dog named Cooper? This travel app is a story-based guide to London’s history and attractions, with plenty of interactivity to keep children reading.

FAMIGO SANDBOX Android – Free. If you’re handing over an Android device to a child, Famigo Sandbox is invaluable. It filters the apps on your phone to only show those suitable for children, locks off other features, and recommends new apps they might like.

MOVE THE TURTLE iPhone/iPad – £1.99. Can five-year-olds start learning to program? They can with this app, which aims to teach the basics of computer programming by planning tasks – all presented by a friendly turtle character to spark their imagination.

THE HAPPY FACE iPhone/iPad – £0.69. Most parents have used a reward chart for their children at some point. This turns the idea into an app for use while out and about, moving children’s photos onto a happy or sad face according to their behaviour.

YOUR FANTASTIC ELASTIC BRAIN iPad – £1.99. Aimed at five-year-olds and up, this is a book app all about brains, using illustration and animation to explain some complex science, while throwing in “brain workout” games to help children stretch their grey cells.

1. BrainPOP Featured Movie, FREE
Made with the iPad in mind, this app delivers fresh, animated movies every day on topics including earth awareness, financial literacy and more. Kids take interactive quizzes to show what they know.

4. ABC Phonics Animals Free Lite, FREE
A group of parents created these talking and spelling flashcards. On the iPad, ye olde arte of learning becomes animated, interactive, lively and fun.

5. Star Walk, $2.99
This guide to the night sky shines brightly among iPad’s constellation of educational apps. It’s a window into more than 9,000 stars, planets, constellations and other celestial bodies.

6. RedFish, FREE ($9.99 upgrade for all 50 activities)
Teaching kids ages 3-7 to count, read, spell and even compose music has never been quite as much fun as it is on the iPad. What would Beethoven have done with an app such as this?

7. 123 Color HD Talking Coloring Book, $0.99
Fans of this iPhone app will want to check out the iPad version, with all-new high-resolution drawings that are five times larger than the originals.

8. World Book – This Day in History, $0.99
Thanks to the encyclopedia giant’s interactive calendar that includes pictures, sounds, music and features, history may not seem so ancient to kids.

9. iLiveMath Animals of Africa, $1.99
Stampeding toward an iPad near you, this app combines math with zoology for a hair-raising learning experience (which is currently being enhanced for Apple’s latest and greatest).

10. History: Maps of the World, FREE
Travel back in time with historical maps of all kinds. High-resolution maps on the iPad just might be the next best thing to being there.

It offers facts about bullying for children and their parents and tips on how to deal with it or who to talk to.

The site will also have a choose-your-own-adventure game for students to learn how to deal with bullying and moderated forums where children can discuss their problems with peers.

West Australian education minister Elizabeth Constable said the website would promote strategies to help different jurisdictions and education authorities develop ways to address bullying.

“School communities are working hard to make school environments safer, more supportive and respectful for all young people and adults – places where everyone is free from bullying, harassment, discrimination and violence,” she said.

“The new Bullying No way! website contains the latest information on bullying and violence and is a useful resource to support school communities in this important venture.”

Dr Constable chairs the council of Australian education ministers, which launched the website.

The council will also launch an iPhone app which will let students access instant information about bullying and what to do about it.